Childhood Polyvictimization and Associated Health Outcomes: A Systematic Scoping Review

Abstract

Background: Polyvictimization, the experience of multiple types of victimization, are associated with detrimental health outcomes. Despite extensive research on the health consequences of polyvictimization, one challenge in understanding this literature lies in the varied operationalized definitions of polyvictimization and health outcomes. This scoping review provides the volume of the current literature on this topic, documents the varied constructs of polyvictimization and associated health outcomes, identifies knowledge gaps, and guides future research directions. Method: A systematic search of English-language original articles that presented quantitative associations of childhood polyvictimization and health outcomes was performed through six-database searches, a gray literature search, and citation mining from June 2020 to January 2021. The varied constructs of polyvictimization, health outcomes, and other study characteristics were extracted. Results: A total of 96 studies were included. Two ways of creating continuous variables (30.21%) and four ways of constructing categorical variables (72.92%) were identified for operationalizing polyvictimization. The majority of health outcomes were mental, behavioral, or social (96.88%), while slightly more than 10% of studies examined physical health (11.46%) or general health conditions (10.42%), respectively. More than half of studies used U.S. samples (56.25%). Conclusions: The varied constructs of polyvictimization suggests that there is a need to establish a valid polyvictimization construct that is consistently agreed upon in the research community. Findings summarize the specific health outcomes that can be targeted for further investigation and prevention efforts. Findings also suggest that the study of resilience and coping education for childhood polyvictims is sorely needed.

Developmental trauma: Conceptual framework, associated risks and comorbidities, and evaluation and treatment

“…However, individuals exposed to ACEs, pervasive interpersonal traumas, and polyvictimization [multiple, repeated ACEs; (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)] may not only go on to develop PTSD, but may also undergo significant shifts in their developmental trajectories. The changes are often widespread, adversely affecting their biological, social, cognitive, emotional, and spiritual/existential development (1,(9)(10)(11).…”

Prevalence and Predictors of Poly-Victimization of Adolescents in England and Wales

“…In the current study this equated to two or more different victimization types as the average victimization was 1.08, 0.96, 0.74, and 0.60 in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006, respectively (see Table 1 ), which is in line with previous research that defined poly-victims as those who experienced more than one type of victimization ( Bidarra et al, 2016 ; Turner et al, 2010 ). However, there are other methods to construct poly-victimization (see Segura et al, 2018 ) and a recent study ( Lee et al, 2022 ) calls for a valid poly-victimization construct that is consistently agreed upon in the research community.…”

Unique and shared risk factors for early childhood victimisation and polyvictimisation in a Brazilian population-based birth cohort

“… 5 Children exposed to multiple types of victimisation (“polyvictims”) tend to experience more serious victimisations than other child victims and are at greatest risk of detrimental biopsychosocial impacts across the lifespan. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 …”